


Forgets Me, The Princess, Forgets Me?

by tickandtemp



Category: The Underland Chronicles - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-05
Updated: 2015-05-05
Packaged: 2018-03-29 03:17:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3880207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tickandtemp/pseuds/tickandtemp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ripred tells Temp that Boots isn't coming back. Angry, Temp gets Ripred to tell him more, and Ripred tells him what Boots will become. Still, Temp refuses to accept the truth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forgets Me, The Princess, Forgets Me?

"Gone forever, is the Princess, gone forever?"

Ripred sighed, his entire body hunching over. "Yes, Temp, they're gone forever. They aren't coming back."

"Gone forever, the Princess, gone forever?"

Ripred crawled away from Temp, who still couldn't register the fact that Boots had left for good. Temp followed the scarred gray rat throughout the palace, hoping for some reassurance that Boots might one day return, perhaps a prophecy that mentioned a Princess. Temp followed Ripred through several halls, keeping to the gnawer's pace, and waited for Ripred to tire. Once Ripred stopped at the roofless top of the palace, Temp crawled up to him and poked his sides with his antennae, demanding his attention.

"Gone forever, the Princess, gone forever?"

Ripred turned quickly and snarled at the crawler. "Yes, Temp! She's gone forever! She's not coming back! What don't you understand?"

"Why, the Princess leave, why?"

"Because she had to go home someday," Ripred said, his tone soft and sad. "Her mother took Gregor, Lizzie, and Boots back to the Overland, and she plans on taking them far away from New York. She doesn't want them coming back."

Temp thought of the Overland crawlers he had sent to watch over Boots when the Prophecy of Bane loomed over their heads. Some crawlers would disappear, but others would return with news that Boots was safe. Eventually, one returned with news that Gregor was going to take Boots near a gateway to the Waterway, and Underland crawlers retrieved her. Perhaps Temp could contact a few more Overland crawlers, just to send messages to Boots, and to return with information on her whereabouts and wellbeing. In time, perhaps years from now, Boots would return to the Underland on her own accord, fluent in crawler and bursting in joy at the sight of Temp. However, Temp's fantasy was cut short with Ripred's warning.

"I know what you're thinking, Temp," Ripred whispered. "You'll think she'll remember this place and she'll come back someday."

"Will return, the Princess, will return," Temp said hopefully.

"No, she won't," Ripred replied. "She's only three, Temp, and grown humans don't remember anything before the age of four. Pretty soon, she'll forget all about the Underland. She won't be a Princess anymore. She never was one."

"What be the Princess, then, what be?" Temp asked, though he wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer.

"Just an Overland human," Ripred replied. "That's all she'll ever grow up to be, and for anyone not human, that is by no means a good thing."

"Know this, how you, know this?"

Ripred stared at the kingdom full of humans. "It means she'll grow up to be like her mother. A most fearsome swatter. Don't bother sending any Overland crawlers to find her, Temp. They'll just be swatted, if not by her mother, then possibly by Boots herself."

"No, no," Temp began to weep. "No, no, no."

"You had to know, Temp," Ripred said.

But all Temp could do was scamper away, dragging his antennae behind him, muttering, "no, no, no," until it devolved into clicks of agony.

* * *

Often, Temp would sit near the old gateway where he had first found Boots. Even after years past, even after he quit sending Overland crawlers after her, even after the other crawlers stopped talking about the Princess, he still sat there, waiting for some sign of her return. He went without eating, much longer than a crawler should, and he went without rest. Sometimes, he would check the floors beneath the gateway, just to be sure that Boots didn't fall without the help of the currents. Occasionally, an ill-fated Overlander would fall at the wrong time, and all Temp would arrive to was a dead body. He would scamper over to it, feel every part of the Overlander with his antennae, and smell every crevice, just to make sure it wasn't Boots who died. To his comfort, none of the victims ever smelled like the precious Princess, and he would return to his hiding place, watching and waiting.

One day, he sat there, gazing up at the gateway, watching the currents form. Temp could never figure out how they worked. He knew that years ago, Gregor's father had fallen, and that he had dazzled the Underlanders with his knowledge of the world's workings. As the currents spun, Temp's thoughts drifted, and he thought of all the things that happened since Boots had left the Underland.

Vikus had died shortly after the Overland family had left. To his knowledge, Vikus had had some sort of attack, and he had never fully recovered. His health would go up and down, up and down, until he suffered another attack and died. All of his friends and family went into deep mourning, and the Underland creatures regretted the loss of the humble diplomat.

Some three or four years later, Luxa was officially crowned Queen. Her coronation was a fantastic celebration that lasted hours, and he distinctly recalled Ripred dining on a rather large bowl of shrimp and cream sauce. Even Nerissa ate quite a bit. As the years passed, Howard and Nerissa looked after Luxa as if she were their own sister, and when Queen Luxa received a marriage proposal, Howard and Nerissa looked over the courtship process meticulously.

Temp couldn't remember everything that went into Underland human courtship, only that it was a lengthy and delicate process. Queen Luxa didn't marry her suitor until five years after he had sent her the first letter. Even then, Temp could tell that her thoughts were always elsewhere, always on the Overland Warrior.

Now Queen Luxa was several months pregnant and Hazard grew up to be somewhat of a diplomat, much like Vikus. As far as Temp had been told, Queen Luxa was going to give birth soon, and the Underlanders were anxious. Is it a boy? Is it a girl? Temp heard these questions asked a lot when he was in the company of humans.

Temp looked up at the mists again. Sighing, he wondered if he should abandon the hope of Boots ever returning. His antennae drooped and he was about to turn away when he heard a high-pitched human voice growing louder and louder.

Curious, he turned back to the tunnel, gazing at the mists and seeing a body form. A dark-skinned human girl slowly descended, carried by the mists until she landed softly on her two feet. The girl, looking not much older than Luxa when she was first crowned, gazed at her new surroundings.

Temp took a deep breath and was stuck by an all-too-familiar scent.

Realizing it was indeed Boots, Temp was tempted to call out her name, perhaps in Crawler to see if she remembered, but then he remembered everything Ripred had warned him about.

"She'll be just another Overland human."

Still, he had to try. Loudly, still in the safety of his hiding place, he clicked in Crawler, "Princess." Then, in the same native tongue, he clicked, "Boots!"

Boots turned in his direction, but didn't see him, and she immediately asked, "Who was that?!"

Temp couldn't say he was surprised by how fearful Boots seemed to be now, given that the Underland wasn't exactly welcoming to Overland humans. Still, he had wished to see that fearless, friendly girl he had known years ago. Unsure of what she would do, Temp waited, and Boots looked away.

"I thought I heard someone say, 'Boots,'" the girl huffed. "No one's called me that in years."

_She remembers Crawler! She remembers Crawler!_

Boots turned around again, gazing at the walls of the gateway she just fell down. "Oh, great. I fell down a large tunnel, I'm hearing things,  _and_ I'm talking to myself. I'm probably going crazy."

The mists began to disappear when a small slip of paper came into view. Both Boots and and Temp watched the paper float from side to side, and when it softly landed on the cavern floor, Boots picked it up and examined it.

"Of all the things to fall with me, I get a drawing I did when I was three?"

Boots rolled her eyes and flipped it over, providing the crawler an opportunity to see what she had drawn. If his eyes weren't fooling him, he could have sworn he saw a drawing of a large crawler carrying a small, dark human through a cave, and in big, crooked letters, he could see his name.

"Temp," she muttered when she flipped it over again. "I had the weirdest imaginary friends."

"I be real, I be!" Temp cried in English, crawling quickly out of his hiding place.

"Ahh!" Boots screamed as she jumped backward in surprise. "What?"

"I be real, I be," Temp said again, waving his antennae around. 

"You mean, you're a... real giant talking roach," Boots said skeptically. "So what else is real? Giant rats? Giant bats?" She scoffed to herself. "I bet there's some albino queen named Luxa somewhere too."

"Yes, they be real, yes!" Temp cried. "Remembers, the Princess, remembers!" He then paused when he spotted Boots raising an eyebrow at him. "Be you, a swatter, be you?"

"No," Boots replied, confused. "Why would I swat roaches?"

_Ripred was wrong! Ripred was wrong_! Temp bounced on his six legs joyously.  _Ripred was wrong about the Princess_! His heart swelled with joy. As soon as he could convince her that she was safe, he would first show her to the other crawlers, and then he would bring her to Regalia. He had no idea why Boots returned now, but he was beyond elated. He could see her kneeling down, her hand outstretched, and he crawled under her hand to feel her fingers against his own hard shell.

"So, what, do I go on a ride?" Boots asked.

"A ride, I give Princess, a ride," he replied.

"And you. Temp. You're Temp," Boots asked, her fingers stroking the part of his shell between his antennae, and he quivered with joy.

"I be, Temp, I be."

 


End file.
